Florida Grand Opera is always looking for new and creative ways to nurture new audiences and de-mystify opera, as we strive to expand our reach and promote inclusivity. This is often accomplished by combining a presentation of opera with another genre of music. Next up for FGO is Reggae.

FGO is pleased to return to the Miami Beach Bandshell collaborating once again with the Rhythm Foundation. The evening will feature these two genres of music performed by FGO’s Studio Artists and the Hal "Reggae Man" Anthony and Friends Reggae Band. Neil Nelson, FGO’s Samuel M. Townsend Studio Artist Program Manager will narrate the program, assisted by Susan T. Danis, FGO’s General Director and CEO. Neil is a culture bearer, as he is a proud Jamaican American and a classically trained opera singer who will perform the roles of Alcindoro and Benoit in FGO’s upcoming presentation of La boheme.

Featuring two distinctly different genres performed to bring Opera to new audiences and to use the power of music to break down the barriers that keep us from celebrating our cultural differences. FGO and Reggae artists will perform the work of Bob Marley, Mozart, Tarrus Riley, Verdi, Sister Nancy, Puccini, and The Paragons, to name a few. 

Florida Grand Opera

Creativity in the Community is a holistic, trilingual multi-session community engagement and outreach initiative. This program will connect the county’s children ages 2-6 and their families (75% LMI) to an accessible, enriching, multidisciplinary education program, inspired by The Bass’ contemporary art exhibitions, designed to deepen their connection to the arts and literacy in their day-to-day lives.

The Bass’ team will bring family workshops to Miami’s diverse, underserved, low-to-moderate income neighborhoods of North Miami Beach, Little Havana, and Little Haiti. Workshops will feature six-weekly sessions of trilingual family-centered art and literacy workshops. The sessions will be culturally fluent, tailored for each location, with instruction delivered in the predominant language of the community and literature chosen to explore and expand on the community’s cultural heritage. The program will expand beyond the outreach activity into participants’ homes, and families will be provided with free books to begin their own at-home library and free art supplies to equip their at-home art studio. Participants will have access to monthly free family field trips to The Bass to experience Family Day, with transportation and a customized family-friendly guided tour, hands-on activities and artist-led activations included.

The Bass

Shakespeare in the Schools: Macbeth (September 2023 – March 2024)

Shakespeare in the Schools brings a fully staged, interactive, and 50-minute-long Shakespeare work to public school students, a very hard-to-reach audience, in the most direct and imaginative way; by bringing a band of players, their sets and props, directly into the schools. During the 2023-24 school year, MACBETH has been selected because for many high school sophomores in Miami-Dade County, the play is required reading. It is also a cautionary tale of how one can become completely lost if one allows ambition to cloud judgment and allow a dark and sinister persona to take over. The 50-minute production will encourage audience participation much like original productions of Shakespeare’s work. It is GableStage’s intent to not only bring the characters to life on stage but to allow the students to fully experience the story themselves through guided participation.

GableStage

Mobile WALLCAST^® (November 2023 – April 2024)

The key strategy of the Mobile WALLCAST^® program is for NWS to collaborate with local artists, performing groups, and organizations from historically marginalized neighborhoods to create unique concert experiences (via archival concert footage and live performance) that not only entertain and inspire but encourage continuing dialogue between NWS and the communities they visit.

New World Symphony

PAMM Free Second Saturdays (September 2023 – August 2024)

“PAMM Free Second Saturdays,” are free admission days that include hands-on arts activities for children and families, on the second Saturday of each month. This programming cultivates intergenerational engagement with the museum. 

Every month, careful planning goes into the development of “PAMM Free Second Saturdays” programming to reduce barriers to museum access, especially barriers related to cost. Each program's theme is based on an exhibition on display at the museum. PAMM Teaching Artists and education staff work diligently to ensure that all audiences have an opportunity to have memorable learning experiences centered around art at the museum; the day is filled with a variety of activities that are designed for all museumgoers. To help broaden the impact and reach of this program, PAMM frequently partners with guest artists and local community organizations, which helps PAMM strengthen its community relationships across Miami-Dade County, as well as reach underserved audiences. Furthermore, PAMM recognizes that there are few affordable opportunities for students to engage in intergenerational activities or to experience and to learn from contemporary art elsewhere in Miami-Dade; therefore, it is important for us to deliver this program every calendar month.

Pérez Art Museum Miami